1) What is the difference in 能 and 能够？2) 想 means "think" and 要 means "want". Why can't I just say, 我要苹果。我要吃苹果.? 3) 阅读? I have been saying 读 by itself. Am I wrong?

Posted at Sat Jul 09 17:39:41 UTC 2011]]>http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/1005756
http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/1005756牛juiceSat Jul 09 17:39:41 UTC 2011牛juice : Help Me! :O (21)I know you all come from such different backgrounds and you are all so diverse. It's a difficult decision but here are the facts:

My Japanese is much much better than my Korean or Chinese. But Japanese is not popular with American business. Also, Japan is really expensive.

My Korean is weak. I can read Hangul easily but my vocabulary is small. The good thing is that the grammar is a lot like Japanese so it isn't too hard. I love South Korea and it has the best American Air Force Base. I heard that even if I know Japanese or Chinese I might be put in Korea. So I would be at an advantage knowing Korean. Korean is semi popular with American business.

My Chinese is OK. It's not as good as my Japanese but it's not as bad as my Korean. The base is in mainland China and I'm not sure I know a whole lot about it. I'm a bit nervous about it actually. Chinese is very very big right now in America. It's the most important language in business.

I prefer Chinese and Korean over Japanese, because it's more natural to me but it's more about the people and experiences. It's a really important decision and later on I can add the other two languages. I just don't know what would be the best country for a foreigner. :(

Posted at Mon Feb 28 21:56:12 UTC 2011]]>http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/828517
http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/828517牛juiceMon Feb 28 21:56:12 UTC 2011牛juice : 雑誌の文章（最後！） (9)
Hello everyone, thank you so much for all you help so far! Here is the last of my essay. I'm not sure how to end it without sounding cheesy -- 丁寧に表したいと思いますが。。。。

Last October I started teaching Japanese. Because I didn't know much about computers, teaching online was quite a challenge but I learned a lot with my students. I taught through an online class called, "eluminate" (It's a pun on illuminate and education.). I set up a website and an email for teaching. I start class on Tuesdays at 3. I always start with a song while uploading files. Because the way we study the Kana is so important, I try to make all the lessons myself. I draw characters, make jokes with other techniques. nihonGO! (my class name) has around 10-12 students. Our mascots are Will and Mochiko. In the story they both wish to be culinary masters, Will with his waffle making skills and Mochiko with her traditional Japanese cooking. Everyone likes food so it has been a successful plot so far. If my students have questions at anytime they can always contact me though email.

So far we have learned 600 words, Hiragana and Katakana and conversational grammar. Even now I feel like we just started -- we still have 3 more units left! Because I believed we have a firm base in Japanese now, I am planning on using a text. Whatever textbook we use, I will use the flash card program Anki (暗記) to help teach. With this program, wherever, whenever, I can send flash cards made for (my students') reviewing. I will continue to do my best! (We don't have this expression in English. :L)

Japanese has had a great effect on my life, I can see the world more clearly. I even learned about my own country through the Japanese viewpoint. I am truly grateful but I feel that no matter how much I teach I won't be able to repay what I have gained. This year when I travel to Japan for the first time, I want to share the same change with others. Also, I want to try some takoyaki. :)

I can't speak like a native yet but with the help of my friends, and if I do the best I can, then I believe I will one day be able to. Thank you for letting me express my experiences through Ja-net. (よろしくおねがいします)

（米国の）ワシントン州 ジェイコブ●スネッフェン 18際(NA) Washington State Jacob Sniffen 18

Posted at Thu Feb 24 23:38:14 UTC 2011]]>http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/824431
http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/824431牛juiceThu Feb 24 23:38:14 UTC 2011牛juice : 雑誌の文章（4） (6)To Americans, Japanese is not an easy language to learn. (Japanese) grammar is complicated and reading names is hard but the hardest part is kanji. Even when compared to Chinese, Japanese kanji is difficult. Japanese kanji have many readings like onyomi, kunyomi, ateji. But also, kanji can have over 10 readings! When you look at "上", we can think of "上がる" "上手" "うえ" "のぼる" "上着" etc. In a conversation when you hear "toru" there are 13 different words to think about. That can be a real pain to foreigners. I think the way Japanese high school students study kanji is not good for foreigners. When a foreigner studies a kanji they have to learn the character, meaning and usage (words) as well. For example, when I studied "情", I had to learn words like "国情" and "情報". Because of this, I used Heisig's "How to Remember the Kanji". Instead of teaching how to use the kanji and it's readings it only teaches meaning and writing. But more importantly it showed the secret to studying kanji. I'll explain how to study kanji with this book.

The radicals are lined up in a row. Each radical has a mnemonic, or a visual meaning. Students are encouraged to create their own meanings for radicals -- even if the meanings are "wrong" or completely different. It isn't important for a foreigner to know where a character comes from but how to use it to learn others. For example I gave the radical "魚" the meaning "Nemo" from Finding Nemo. I attached my best friend to the character "人". With these mnemonics we can create stories or images and memorize kanji with little difficulty.

「鯨」クジラ 物語：ニモくんはクジラにいるところで、ニモにとってクジラの中は「京」みたいです。『本間の京を考えてください。』

[鯨] WhaleStory: This is the scene where Nemo is inside the whale; to Nemo the whale is like a city. {Think of an actual city inside the whale.}

This is how I learned the Joyo kanji. After this, whenever I learned a new word I would learn it in kanji. Because I understand the meaning of the characters, words became easier to learn. (Isn't this the opposite of what Japanese people do? They learn kanji through the words they know.)

ここまで読んで頂いてありがとうございました！

Posted at Thu Feb 24 09:02:56 UTC 2011]]>http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/823684
http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/823684牛juiceThu Feb 24 09:02:56 UTC 2011牛juice : 雑誌の文章（3） (12)One year later, I transferred to an online high school and continued Japanese though self study. Another year passes and I find an online Japanese school called, "JOI". Instead of studying Japanese, we practiced it though conversations and exercises. At JOI I experienced my first conversation in Japanese. The teachers here aren't restricted by quizzes and tests but rather have the ability to teach freely. At JOI English is not used, instead new points are explained though Japanese and diagrams. In short, learning Japanese strengthened my Japanese at the speed of sound.

Last year I had to take yet another foreign language elective so I tried a Japanese course at a nearby college. (In America high school students can take college classes instead of high school classes through a program called "Running Start".) The class was not a good experience though I believe it offered good chances for me. At this college there were a lot of foreign exchange students studying English. For the first time I met a Japanese person and I experienced "aidzuchi" and Japanese gestures. During that time, I couldn't understand male Japanese very well. Also, I didn't understand the Japanese way of conversation. I thought, "Man, Japanese is complicated!".

In cafeterias and bus stops I practiced Japanese with friends and learned a lot about the Japanese culture of young adults. As repayment, I would help them with their English homework. While many students expected to master Japanese though the classroom, I practiced Japanese with my friends enjoying every step of the way. I would show them around museums and show them kayaking. One day, I combined my usual practice with a joke. After each painting's name I would add "It's so __ish, huh?". Soon everyone was using the expression and laughing. It's strange how even a boring joke in a foreign language can be so funny! The fear of speaking in a foreign language is so common, but we have to pul ourselves together and do our best! Even Japanese infants make mistakes, get corrected and learn! It's like the saying, "Even monkeys fall from trees".

I started Japanese at age of 14 in the summer before high school. My first word wasn’t “hello”, but “牛”. In the first two weeks I learned the かな by learning words in かな rather than brute memorization of abstract symbols. This was highly effective and had the largest impact on my Japanese. I can’t read “ローマ字” and this is what gave my Japanese a boost. My knowledge of Japanese was separate from English from the beginning. My pronunciation, my thinking and my vocabulary was separate. By the time I started high school I had learned 100 漢字 and basic grammar.

In my high school I was lucky enough to have a Japanese class. (This is because we have a large number of Japanese-Americans in WA.) In one year the curriculum covered less than I had studied in my two months of Japanese. I’m not writing this to brag but show how the mindset of the classroom effects how we approach languages. Instead of learning Japanese to understand a song, book or write a letter, most of the energy was spent studying to pass a quiz, get a good grade and move on in high school. Foreign language teachers have it rough here in America. We have to have a high passing rate or we loose our job teaching -- which would get replaced with another elective. It’s much easier to lower the level of the class instead of motivating students. In my classroom we drew pictures of Japanese movie characters for a grade. When my grade passes 200% it was brought back to 100%. I must have used the right crayons.

It was during my first year of high school when I started listening to music and branching out. I decided to start with Japanese songs for good practice. My first song ever, separate from my family’s music of course, was “道” by GReeeeN. From then on I only listened to music in the languages I studied.

本当にありがとうございました！：）

Posted at Thu Feb 24 00:27:52 UTC 2011]]>http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/823226
http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/823226牛juiceThu Feb 24 00:27:52 UTC 2011牛juice : A Letter to All My Friends :) (16)
So I got my Japanese Language Proficiency Test (Rank 2) results. I didn't pass. :(I passed each section but I didn't have a high enough score to pass the general passing score. I'm not depressed, I learned so much by trying and now that I know what the test is I'll try again this year. :) Instead of rank 2 I am thinking of taking the highest level. It sounds crazy, right? Well you can't be successful without a big dream...

... but I have bad news. So I decided that I will take a break from Chinese and Korean so I can prepare for the test again. My Japanese still isn't at the level where I want it to be and I think I should start studying these languages separately. I will still be here to help you with your English, even if you ask me a question in Chinese/Korean. But I will have to FORCE myself to stick with Japanese for the time being. ;__;

I know this news disappoints some of you. It's hard for me because I love all of my languages but I think this will help me in the future. (I will hate that I can't listen to Jay Chou or 넬 for ten months!) I want to thank ALL of you for being so helpful! You ROCK! :D

Time for some good news! I decided that I'm going to show my face now! :) Also If you message me, I will show you my skype and help you with English anytime I am on! :D

Your friend, Jacob (牛juice)

Posted at Wed Feb 23 03:18:35 UTC 2011]]>http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/822058
http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/822058牛juiceWed Feb 23 03:18:35 UTC 2011牛juice : 蔡淳佳的Yesterday的歌詞 (22)
This is my first Chinese song ever! It's also one of my favorites. I listen to it all the time.這歌是我的首次歌。再者這是我最喜歡的中文歌。天天我聽。Isn't her voice pretty? Anyways I wanted to study the lyrics so I could understand it. 难道是她的嗓音很美？還有，我想學習歌詞。The problem was that the lyrics I looked up were...wrong -- at least I think so. （？）They wrote things differently than the music video and now I am so confused!不知道是否准确This is my edition of the lyrics. It's a combination of both versions.這是我组合的歌詞。Is she saying "guitar" or something else in Chinese? XD-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted at Tue Jan 25 07:11:18 UTC 2011]]>http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/780493
http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/780493牛juiceTue Jan 25 07:11:18 UTC 2011牛juice : "National Honor Society" (10)I was surprised to see I was accepted into the club. I always thought of myself as an average student. I often put my foreign language study over my regular studies and sometimes I procrastinate (= do work late). My mother told me that usually the principle or teacher reccomends a student to be reviewed. I looked it up online and found this excerpt: "based upon a student’s performance in the areas of scholarship, service, leadership, and character." (Wikipedia) So maybe they chose me because of my character and not because of my grades. ^0^

What a nice surprise! This week I don't have any school so I am going to try to get some of my language goals done! :)

Hello everyone! This week I finished my school and spent the weekend with relatives. I haven't seen them in 6 years! I am happy to see them return to Georgia, because I finally get my bedroom back. >:)

I still have lots of leftover homework to do over the winter break! I hope I don't spend too much time studying. I never seem to get a full vacation ever. There is always something. :S

Tomorrow I start reviewing kanji again. I have forgotten probably 500! I want to add another 1000 before the new year. Also I have to upload my Japanese lessons to my website for January. I can't wait to start language study again! :)

I wanted to keep this journal short because it's my first Sunday quad-lingual journal. XD Once I receive all your corrections I will record myself reading my entries. :0 Scary stuff since my Korean is SO bad! I blame my poor Korean on the lack of good online dictionaries. There is nothing good available. :< I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

Posted at Mon Dec 20 06:30:09 UTC 2010]]>http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/734888
http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/734888牛juiceMon Dec 20 06:30:09 UTC 2010牛juice : Early New Year Resolution (中日한Eng) (20)
Hello everyone! I finished my college entrance exams! I took a break and I have some catching up to do this week. This is my last week before Winter Break so I will be super busy trying to catch up because I took time off from school to study for my tests. (=_=')> I took the 日本語能力試験N2(二級) and of course some SAT tests. The Japanese test was hard and very VERY long! (More than 4 hours in testing, 1 1/2 hours in waiting and the commute which was about 45 minutes. So I think 6 hours of my Sunday was spent on this test.)

Anyways I already made my new-year resolution! I know I am early, but I have some important goals and I like to make plans. So since I enter college starting in early September I have 8 whole months to do acomplish my goals. I know all my journals seems to be far apart and quite boring -- I'm sorry. I intend to fix this among other things:

牛juice's goals:

1) Write an Lang-8 entry EVRERY sunday: I am joining all my 日本語, 中文, 한국거, and English journals into one big weekly journal. (It makes it so much easier for both me and for you guys correcting my journals.)

2) Learn 8000 words in 中文! (1000 a month.)

3) Learn 8000 words in 한국거! (1000 a month.)

4) Learn 3000 simplified 汉字. (I allready know a lot but it should take 2 months or so.)

6) Learn to 'read' 3000 繁體字. (Japanese 漢字 is traditional-like so I think this won't be so hard.)

7) In Japanese use monolingual dictionaries ONLY! (This is going to be very hard for me.)

8) Go through my "どんな時どう使う文法..." textbook in Japanese.

9) Go through 8000 Japanese sentences. (1000 a month.) (I will explain this later.)

10) Start a book collection and start reading!!! (I'm going to read a book in each language a month!)--24 books total :D I'm going to buy books that Ioved as a kid like Narnia, religious books and just popular books based on your reccomendations!

11) I need to start a music collection and I was thinking I would buy 24 CD's but that might be too expensive.

12) Movies are a great way to learn and have fun. I have a secret -- I don't like TV shows. I guess I am just too impatient. I need to buy some of my favorite movies anyways since I will be moving out next year but 24 DVD's would be quite expensive for a student like me...

13) After writing my journal, and correcting it via your comments, I plan on recording my voice reading it outloud! Scary stuff! But I'm sure it will be a great way to practice!

14) I'm also going to try to log in my studies so I can track what works and what doesn't and how much I have learned. It shouldn't be too hard, right?

15) Have fun! It's my last year in high school. I shoudl try to do as many things as possible before graduating!

Thank you for reading this and I apologise for the lame journal entries as of late. m(-_-)m

Posted at Mon Dec 13 06:09:58 UTC 2010]]>http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/726945
http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/726945牛juiceMon Dec 13 06:09:58 UTC 2010牛juice : I'm back! (13)
I have been away from lang-8 for a long time. I wouldn't be surprised if you thought, "who are you again?" I have been studying pretty hard recently. I got a late start on my school and I have been taking college entrance exams and tests. Tomorrow I take the Japanese SAT II. Next month I take the JLPT among a bunch of other exams. I even teach Japanese now at my high school! It took 2 months to get the permission and to set up my class so we just begun!

Here is my website:www.everyday-nihongo.blogspot.com

I'm trying to get back to writing journals but since many of my friends speak all different kinds of languages I decided I would write this letter in English. :P Yeah, I am a bit lazy.

How have you all been? I know I haven't been the best friend -- I'll try to correct more of your journals later!

話そう答えて、「何かしてくれたいのですか？」My mother answered back, "Is there anything we can do for you?"

"祈ってください。"Please pray for me!

母によるとアンモニアを引いて、咳で肋骨が恐さられてしまいました！According to my mother she caught ammonia and broke a rib by coughing!

本当に困っていますよ。I feel so bad for her.

ちょっと怖い気分がしています。どうしよう？I have a bad feeling about this. I'm scared. What should I do?

Posted at Mon Sep 20 19:33:04 UTC 2010]]>http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/628885
http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/628885牛juiceMon Sep 20 19:33:04 UTC 2010牛juice : Where is 牛juice? (11)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAnIB_Y7suM&feature=related(This is a piano song I am learning. This is not me playing though. haha)

During August I flew to Texas, my home state, to look at colleges and visit my family. I visited 5 colleges and visited many campuses. My sister-in-law showed me Baylor. Her tour was fun and we ended our visit by running through the fountain! lol I had interviews with the teachers, sometimes in English and sometimes in Japanese/Chinese. >.http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/6091/baylori.jpg(This is the fountain we ran through. :D)

I got to visit my brother and his wife for a week. I haven't seen them in a while so it was fun, though we didn't do much. We basically crashed between all the colleges playing music games. :D My older brother has a dog who was so hyperactive it was hard to keep the poor dog entertained. :S She ate my brother's hat!

So when I got back I had missed the first week of school! Not only did I have to catch up but I had to change my classes for the colleges I looked at. (Statewide not just Texas) It took a lot of effort to change my courses because people were so obstinate. It took 4 days for me to work it all out. This semester I have Enviornmental Science, Consumer Math, British Literature, and Finding Your Path IV. "Finding Your Path" is a senior class where you have to run a community project and write an essay about it. I wanted to teach an Asian langauge class. In my school, Japanese is the most popular language so I decided that I would get more students if I taught that. So now I teach Japanese at my high school.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJEk824VIas(I love this song and movie!)

Also, in America we are required to take the SAT, another crumy standardized test, if we want to enter a good university. I have been studying for it and I have to take it next month! My parents even hired a tutor for 3 hours every Wednesday. I have too much homework!!! Apparently on the test the writing section isn't important. An advisor said that the universities require seperate essays anyways so the test's essay is not important. I think that's stupid and pointless to write an essay for no benefit!

ZOMG! (A teenage-slang showing surprise.)

So this year I thought it would help me enter a college if I took a foreign language proficiency test. So I signed up for the NJLPT (新日本語能力試験). I am taking level N2 (二級) which is for general fluentcy. I am taking the test in December. Even though the kanji test is not difficult being only 1000 characters, the grammar section is going to kill me. I am working through grammar books now but I will need your help!

http://img709.imageshack.us/img709/329/lobsterp.jpg(This is a lobster. )

I also decided that I should take more college courses through a program called, "Running Start". Essentially, this program allows high school students to take college level classes and recieve credit for the work. I am going to take Korean and Chinese courses at a local college. I have allready taken every level of Japanese at every nearby college so I won't be taking any more Japanese. -__-; Sadly the Japanese programs were quite easy. Even though the classes were labled "ADVANCED" the classes never reached 200 kanji. But in Washington State Korean is the second language so I hope the classes are better. (In Washington State there are a LOT of Korean towns! I often walk into a store and say 안녕하세요~~!)

I just got back from a anniversary trip. Whose? My local priest has been serving us for 60 years!!! I have only been his little helper for 6 of those years but I am really grateful to him. We drove 3 hours to go to a monastery where we celebrated a few priest's anniversaries. It was fun but I am tried from the trip. We ate lots of food and had a special service deticated to those priests.

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/8774/monastery.jpg(It looked like this except it was raining.)

So in Karate I will earn my orange belt this month -- well if I pass the test. I am quite nervous. I started karate at a "difficult age". There are few kids who start karate at my age so I don't have many peers. I don't mind though. Next month I will be in my first tournament -- I didn't think I was good enough to be considered worthy. lol I will try my best. I will be performing 基本型弐. (Basic Form No. 2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edwFyv5Ingc&feature=related(This is my kata except there is no kicking and I peform a different style of karate called "林派".)

Next week is my birthday. I will be turning 18! I don't want to be 18 yet -- I don't feel any older. I will have a party on Friday after my birthday since Wednesday is a lame day to have a party. Im America the birthday boy (or girl) is the one who hosts the party. Is is like that where you live? I wanted a causal party without cake or presents because I hate busy parties. We will be doing a bonfire and ice cream sundaes. You guys are welcome to come if you can find me. (^__^)/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCt2nZF2nLk(This song is really popuar in recent culture. It comes from a game but the song and catchphrase is used daily in emails and conversations. Basically, the protagonist is promised cake in the game but she never gets to eat any, hence the popculture phrase: "The cake is a lie". We say this when something turns out to be untrue or when we don't beleive someone. Try to come up with an example in your reply! :D)

Whew! That was a long journal. I will try to write 3 journals every week. (日本語, 中文, 한국어)See you guys later!!!

Hello, Everyone. Today's song is Jay Chou's "The Fragrance of Rice". (He is known as Jay Chou in English.) This is one my favorite songs! It reminds me of "The Good Earth". A really good movie with the same plot as the MV.

九月我开始中文课。我想学校有意思因为我喜欢学习。但是朋友不喜欢学校。：（In September I start a Chinese class. I think school is interesting because I like to learn. But my friends hate it.

数学很难但是，当我懂数学成意思。成就呢。I think math is hard but I think it's fun after I get it. It's a great sense of accomplishment.

当我是小子，我不去学校了。我的父母是老师！8年父母交我了。^__^ 现在我的高学在线。我不喜欢public school，因为不有自由.很好。我要开始大学！ I was home-schooled. It's where your parents teach you instead of going to school. After 8 years of home school I joined an online high school. I tried a public school but I liked my freedom to learn what and when I wanted. It's great. I can't wait to start college.

我想生命是长课。Life to me is a long lesson.

你也喜欢学校吗？Do you like school too?

请你教我”when／当“。我不懂的！>.PS) Please help me with my "when"/当. I don't know how to express the "time" in Chinese yet. 谢谢你！

Recently I have been researching about home stay programs. In 2011 I would like to go to Japan in either the Spring or Summer. (from January to August ) Because home stay is expensive I was thinking of staying at some of my exchange student friends houses.

よろしければ、色々な地方のホームスティしたい家族がいれば、メッセー ジして頂けませんか？どうぞよろしく御願いします。If it is OK, if you know about the various locations of Japan or if you know a family that would like to become a home stay family, please contact me. Thank you so much!

Posted at Sat Jun 26 21:19:28 UTC 2010]]>http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/534856
http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/534856牛juiceSat Jun 26 21:19:28 UTC 2010牛juice : ひらがなのたんご (6)Starting from September to January I will be teaching a Japanese class. This is a chart labled, "Hiragana vocabulary". Because I made it myself I don't think it's good enough yet. I was planning to listen to some native speakers and get some feedback. Will you help me?

"Why did you choose those words" (in Japnese, do you say この or その over a long-distance conversation?), you ask. Well I chose those words because they are simple to write and easy to temember. I didn't use verbs or adjectives. This is because they are hard for beginning learners to memorise.

I tried to occaisionally choose interesting or helpful words to help make it less of a chore. Also, I chose specific words to help show the difference in pronunciation. For example we say "TO-fu" in English but in Japanese it is pronounced, "tou-FU". I tried to show the difference in short and long vowels.

Posted at Wed Jun 23 03:25:38 UTC 2010]]>http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/530730
http://lang-8.com/23679/journals/530730牛juiceWed Jun 23 03:25:38 UTC 2010牛juice : How I Study Japanese {English} (29)Kanji)http://yfrog.com/g0p1030765jhttp://yfrog.com/0okanjipagesjI used a series of books called, "How to Remember the Kanji" by Heisig. I actually skipped book two because I didn't like the concept but the 1st and last books are really neat. Essentially you attach characters, people or distinct object to radicals (部首) and simple kanji and use them to create images of kanji.The method doesn't teach the pronunciation of the characters. It is meant to learn the correct stroke order. This is the hardest step in learning Japanese in my opinion. Here is an example of a story:

童 juvenile)立 standing里 computer (The characteristic isn't related to the actual meaning.)Image: Juveniles are known for being impatient. Here is a juvenile standing on a computer, stomping, as he tries to speed up the connection.

Grammar)I am using 3 books to study Kanji:http://yfrog.com/4ckanzenbookjThis is 完全マスター2級日本語能力試験文法問題対策. The grammar points are designed for someone planning on taking the JLPT. There are lot's of tests and quizes. This is a good book but the vocabulary is brutally difficult for me.

http://img153.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=donnabook.jpgNext is どんなと時どう使う日本語表現文型500. This book is amazing. This book organizes grammar by topic but then further divides JLPT 2 and JLPT1 points by flowers. Sprouts represent JLPT 2 grammar points and the grown flowers represent JLPT 1 grammar points. The book shows the difference between many difficult and rare grammar formations needed for the test. There is a workbook too. I haven't used it yet but it looks great. Before each chapter there is a checking of understanding and at the end of each chapter there is a review.

Listening Comprehension)http://img229.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=mainichi.jpg （新）毎日聞き取り50日 is a good series because of it's simplicity. There is little to no English. There are some notes for the vocabulary like, "国際連合→国連 is an abbreviation meaning United Nations". The listening is normal paced but the pronunciation is spoken as to be easily understood. The book focuses on retaining informations in a conversation. For example, in one exercise I have to listen to how to make 牛丼 and I have to draw the steps in order. Yikes! At the end of each chapter there is a ひと口 with notes on the topic and culture.

http://yfrog.com/0gkimonogjThe second book, 生の日本語を聞き取ろう！ is very different. The book is written in Chinese, Korea, Japanese and English! Those are all languages I am studying so it's awesome practice! The book focuses on understanding Japanese in difficult situations like listening to advertisements or broadcasts in a train. There are lot's of notes for vocabulary and grammar and the book is easy to understand...except the dialog. They chose some really hard listening exercises. I can't pick up a lot of the Japanese. How can I understand what the waitress is saying if there are multiple people talking at the same time? This book has nice pictures and maps. It's very detailed and there is a lot of cultural information.

JLPT)http://img199.imageshack.us/gal.php?g=jlpt.jpgI bought a book with three past tests with the answers and dialog. These are the same tests that were used but the format of the test changes this year. Still this helps me sharpen my test abilities and helps my reading speeds.

Reviewing) I use Anki, mentioned a few days ago, for retaining information and memorising vocabulary. I am working through 6000> words this summer. Everyday I memorise 150 words and re-memorise 30 kanji a day. I hope to finish 3000 kanji by the fall! Of course I listen to Japanese audio but recently I haven't been so succsessful in finding radio podcasts and good sources for practice.

I will leave for Japan sometime in the Spring for three months and I want to really improve my Japanese before then. I will be taking the JLPT2 this December as part of my graduation project. It will also be of help when I start college and then later teaching. My focus will only be on 標準語 until I reach Japan, because I think it's best to study a dialect by living in the direct area.